I think the Red Barn in Santaquin is definitely going to get a visit from The Great Pumpkin this year. It appears to be THE MOST sincere of all pumpkin patches, according to many blogs I’ve seen recently. We also went a week or so ago with Rob’s family, Kris and Cari.

This is the 3rd year we’ve gone and it’s turning into a great tradition. This year we just got one tiny pumpkin for Ashton (I had already been gutting pumpkins since they became available at the grocery store. Josh is going to check me into rehab for my pumpkin seed addiction) but we just had to go for the hayride and Red Barn goodies.

So after a couple months of training, the time came for us to drive to California to participate in the Long Beach Marathon. I must admit that while I was packing and loading up the car, the phrase “I am going like a lamb to the slaughter” kept running through my head. However, I certainly wasn’t calm as a summer’s morning. Every time I thought about running 26.2 miles, I would almost throw up.

We decided to go to Disneyland a couple days before the marathon, while we still had the ability to walk. I was sooo excited for this! We took Ashton when he was the same age Emmy is now and it was a blast. (How time flies, eh?) Kris and Cari came with us and provided plenty of entertainment for us and helped with the kids. We don’t go anywhere unless we have AT LEAST two nannies to help.

Ashton got to see all of his favorite characters, Captain Jack Sparrow (do NOT forget the ‘Captain’ part), Woody, Buzz, the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang. During the parade, when he saw Mickey and Minnie up on the top of a float, he jumped up and started waving like crazy at them and then blew them a kiss. Oh man, my heart just melted and I got a lump in my throat. It was so cute.

Josh, Kris and I ran the Long Beach Marathon last weekend. It’s strange, I don’t really know what to say about it. We worked so hard and I stressed myself out over reaching this goal for the past few months and now it’s just over. Leading up to it, I was sure that I would never run another marathon again, I could just put a check mark next to ‘marathon’ on my list and be done. But I can honestly say that I had tons of fun and I MIGHT even say I would love to run another one.

The first 10’ish miles of the course were right near or on the beach…GORGEOUS! I didn’t even turn on my music until mile 9, I was just enjoying the incredible scenery and feeling the energy of everyone around me. Kris and I ran the first 13 miles together, it was nice to have a buddy to keep me going. But by then, we just needed to concentrate on finishing and taking those spurts of energy when they came and we got separated. Josh hadn’t been able to run for five weeks before the race, having a completely messed up knee, so we weren’t even sure if he would be able to run 5 feet. He just took it easy and snapped these beautiful pictures with his iPhone along the way. By mile 13, he realized he might actually run another marathon and just kept going. The course double-backed on itself and when I was at mile 20 and just about out of steam, I saw Josh turn the corner and come running toward me on his mile 15! Just like when we were training, getting a huge hug from Josh gave me enough energy to keep going and finish! Sadly, because Josh took these amazing pictures, it used all his battery and he had no music to listen to from mile 20 to the finish.

There were people all along the course to cheer us all on and since we had our names on our numbers, it was nice to hear people yelling “Come on, Jennifer! You can do it!” I finished the marathon in 4 hours 45 min. I’m not totally happy with my time but ah well.